*fangirl squeal*

Okay, this is going to be another extraordinarily long post, so you might want to go get a drink of water or something.

Anyway.

This morning I got up, did laundry, and then went out on an ADVENTURE. This particular adventure was supposed to take me to Kitanoutenmangu, but when I got there, the shrine was closed and there seemed to be some sort of demonstration/protest going on outside, so I figured that it was a good idea to skip it. So instead I wandered around the northern half of Kyoto for half the morning, and somehow wound up at another hole-in-the-wall shrine, this one promising success in sports! There were seriously basketballs left as offerings. Also, there were a variety of articles about various teams who had come to pray at the shrine and then won whatever it was that they were competing for plastered up on the side of the honden (see previous post for explanation). Oh, and I picked up a crazy interesting piece of political propaganda. It was, once again, a flyer for the recent election, but one of the slogans on the flyer was

神道の心は日本の心

The heart of Shinto is the heart of Japan

Apparently she (the candidate) was endorsed by some sort of Shinto political society. Not surprisingly, she's part of the 自由民主党 (LDP; the conservative party of Japan).

In any case, I wound up wandering out of northern Kyoto all the way to Nijo Castle, and then I hopped on bus and rode to Kyoto Station because there was a movie theatre near there showing the new Studio Ghibli movie. Fortunately, I was paranoid, and gave myself plenty of time to get to the movie theatre, 'cause I got seriously lost in spite of (or maybe because of) my map. After wandering around fruitlessly, wondering why none of the streets had the right names, I asked someone, who told me very politely that I was on the wrong side of the station. DUH. So then I had an adventure through the station (seriously, the thing is like a friggin' labyrinth) and managed to make it to the other side, and lo and behold, my map suddenly started working! So I went to the movie theatre, which happened to be on the fifth floor of a mall, and found out that they offer student discounts, but I had forgotten my student ID, so I had to pay 1800 yen to get in. (That's a little more than $18, for anyone wondering.) The crazy thing, though, was that when I went up to buy my ticket, the woman behind the counter asked me which seat I wanted. Apparently movie theatres in Japan are assigned seating. SWEET. Even better, I got a really good seat because I was by myself. (The other people in the program couldn't come today! Sadness.)

So I got to wait until 10 minutes before the movie started, which was when they opened the doors. And guess what! Movie theatre floors in Japan aren't sticky! What craziness is this?! Also, it was stadium seating (with really, really comfortable seats), so there seriously wasn't a bad seat in the house.

So at the beginning of the movie, they had a little "please turn off your cell phones and don't try videotaping this or else" announcement, and then there were trailers.

Trailer #1: Redline, which appears to be an anime movie from Madhouse about a man with a mullet that is larger than I am tall who is competing in some sort of intergalactic race. I may have been biting back giggles for the entire trailer.

Fast cars, big hair, kind of Gurren Lagann-esque animation. Yay?

Then there was a trailer for Cats and Dogs 2: The Revenge of Kitty Galore. It was only slightly better in Japanese. Only slightly. A lot of lines were changed. Everyone was just sort of staring at the screen and twitching slightly.

Then there was a trailer for How to Train Your Dragon...in Japanese. But it was called ヒックとドラゴン (Hikku and Dragon).

Then there were two trailers for Kamen Rider movies, which looked ridiculous and cheesy. WHOO.

Then there was a trailer for this Korean movie (Japanese title translates to "His and My Castaway Diary" but the English title is "Castaway on the Moon"), which actually looks pretty interesting. Here's an English trailer, for those of you who don't want to suffer through the Japanese one.

So then the movie started and MY GOODNESS. It was wonderful. And I could understand about 90% of what they were saying. (I was really worried, because I've never watched a full movie in Japanese without subtitles before. I've never even watched an episode of something without subtitles.) Ranting and raving about its epicness below. No spoilers, but skip if you don't want to be bored by my swooning.

Synopsis: I don't remember a whole lot about the original book this is based off of (The Borrowers), but it stuck to the parts I remember surprisingly well. (They even get in the tea kettle of The Borrowers Afloat at the end.)

Boy (named Shou) with undisclosed illness (it's explained later in the movie, but like I said, no spoilers) comes to live with his grandmother for a bit over the summer because his parents are divorced and too busy to take care of him. Grandmother is also too busy to take care of him, apparently, because she never seems to be around, and instead leaves most of the taking-care-of-ailing-grandsons to her almost entirely incompetent hired hand, Haru.* Shou is, needless to say, extremely lonely, but is delighted to find that there are 借りぐらし (borrowers, although the literal translation is "people who live by borrowing") living in his house. Unfortunately, the borrowers aren't so thrilled about being found out. DRAMA ENSUES.

Animation is, as always, excellent, as is the music. (The theme song is, surprisingly enough, sung by a French woman. She has a weird accent in Japanese, but it's still super pretty.) In addition, whoever did the sound effects needs a pay raise. Seriously. There's this incredible scene where Arrietty and her father are going out borrowing for the first time, and the sound effects make me swoon. Also, there's another scene where the perspective is shifting back and forth between Arrietty and Shou, and the sounds also shift and...well, it was also pretty swoon inducing.

Also, Arrietty's father is pretty much AWESOME. As is Supira (a character who I don't remember from the original Borrowers series, so I bet he's been added).

Also also, the borrowing scenes? SO EXCELLENT.

Also also also, that movie made me even more terrified of crows than I already am. Seriously.**

It's a surprisingly melancholy movie. If you've read The Borrowers, you basically know how it's going to end, and the other main character (Shou), as he says partway through the movie, is "in the middle of dying." That said, it doesn't get overbearingly sad, although there were certainly some parts where I was getting a little bit teary. (Teary from the awesomeness, of course!)

Overall, not one of Ghibli's absolute best movies, but as a non-Miyazaki, it's phenomenal. I would say it's about on the same par as Kiki's Delivery Service or Ponyo. It's really short (92 minutes) so it doesn't have quite the time to develop its characters the way Howl's Moving Castle and Spirited Away (the two best Ghibli movies, in my humble opinion) do.

[/swooning over 「借りぐらしのアリエッティ」***]

So after that I rode the subway home and swooned a little bit more.

And then I got to eat at my host dad's restaurant. (He was kind of like, "Well, you came all this way, and it's your last weekend, so you might as well, okay?" which meant "DO IT.") I went really early (5 o' clock) before the normal huge wave of customers comes (because it's a really tiny restaurant), and IT WAS DELICIOUS. I think he is some kind of cooking wizard. But it was also bizarre, 'cause he kept using all the really polite service terms, and then switching into slangy Kyoto dialect, which kind of threw me for a loop. (はい、めしあがりください。無理しないでね。）So anyway, yes. I have now eaten at one of the hundred best restaurants in Kyoto. AND IT WAS DELICIOUS.

Tomorrow we're taking the Shinkansen (bullet train, for all you Japan-traveling n00bs) to Miyajima, where we'll be spending the night in a ryokan (traditional Japanese hotel). I have no idea if I will have internet access or not, so if you don't hear anything from me, don't assume that I'm dead. I could just be stranded in the middle of nowhere. I will definitely have internet on Tuesday, though, so if I go silent, it'll only be for a day.

Also, it is really hot right now. Auuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh. 9 o' clock at night and 90 degrees. This kind of heat should be illegal!

(Thank goodness for vending machines. Today I had C.C. Lemon, which one of the other program participants is probably going to wind up marrying, because he loves it that much. I must admit that it is pretty good. And apparently has the same amount of vitamin C as 70 lemons. SCARY.)

M'kay, well, I'm gonna go pretend that I'm not melting to death and answer some emails. (Okay, some email, no plural. But it's the thought that counts.) Write more later.

*Who I thought was a man for the first fifteen minutes of the movie. Then Haru used "kashira" (a super girly word for "I wonder") and I thought, "Oh my goodness, Haru is a gay man!" Then I realized Haru the gay man had breasts. HELLO, I AM A GENIUS.

Also, I spent most of the movie mentally calling her Hatsue and expecting her to start killing babies.

**Anime has made me scared of many, many things. Some things I have learned to be scared of because of anime:

Dolls

Blue butterflies

Johnnies

Yellow scarves

Knives of any kind

The internet

Freaky deer god things

Chat rooms

Black goo

DEAD LEAVES AUUUUGH

Ramen

Older sisters

Onsens

Bunny girls

...and more...

Points if you can actually identify what each of those comes from.

**Potential translations:

The Borrower's Arrietty

Arrietty of the Borrowers

Arrietty the Borrower

The Borrower Arrietty

Knowing the weird naming scheme they use, though, it'll wind up with a completely different title.

関西弁勉強せんなあかん

Today instead of our usual nine o' clock class, we had a special class on dialects, specifically Kansai Dialect (the dialect spoken in the Osaka-Kyoto-Kobe area) and Miyakonojou Dialect (a dialect spoken in a small town in Miyajima Prefecture in Kyuushuu).* It. Was. Excellent. And suddenly I am able to understand about 95% of what my host father is saying! (Also, I finally understand はる. It's like a keigo suffix that you can use with friends and strangers and family. CRAZY.)

Miyakonojou Dialect is seriously funky, though, 'cause it's one of the few Japanese dialects which has no tones. Plus the slang is so different that it sounds like a completely different language. (Of course, the first time I heard Kansai Dialect, it sounded like a completely different language too.) For example, let's say I want to say, "It's sunny right now, but I have to stay in my room and study. Because I have a test tomorrow.**"

Tokyo Dialect:

今晴れなんだけど、部屋にいて勉強しなきゃ。明日テストだから。

Ima hare nan da kedo, heya ni ite benkyou shinakya. Ashita tesuto da kara.

Kansai Dialect

今晴れのんやけど、部屋にいて勉強せんなあかん。明日テストだし。

Ima hare non yakedo, heya ni ite benkyou sennaakan. Ashita tesuto da shi.

Miyakonoujou Dialect

今晴れどん、部屋にいて勉強せんないかん。明日テストで。

Ima hare don, heya ni ite benkyou sennaikan. Ashita tesuto de.

どん？ Seriously, that is so weird to say.

Something else funky in Kansai Dialect is that 違う (chigau; different) is shortened to ちゃう (chau) and used as sort of a "right?" as well as a "different."

Thus this crazy conversation is possible:

A: あれ、チャウチャウちゃう？

Are, chau chau chau?

Is that a chow-chow (as in the type of dog)?

B:ちゃうちゃう。チャウチャウちゃう。

Chau chau. Chau chau chau.

No, no. That's not a chow-chow.

Confused yet?

In other news, we had the first of our student-taught classes today. It was about girls' education in Taiwan during the Japanese occupation. Wednesday is when I'm teaching my class, along with another girl, whose reading is from a manga called My Darling Is a Foreigner. It looks...odd to say the least.

In other news, my host family. Have I mentioned that they are awesome? They are awesome.

Monday's the one day that my host dad's restaurant is closed***, so he actually eats dinner with the rest of us on Monday evenings. (Otherwise I usually only see him at breakfast.) Monday night dinners also tend to be めちゃおいしい (crazy delicious). Correlation?

In any case, my host mom taught me to debone YET ANOTHER type of fish (and it was crazy delicious) and she made some sort of pasta with salmon and sausage and mushrooms and there was also Japanese eggplant (which, by the way, tastes so much better than American eggplant) and edamame and cucumbers.**** YUM.

Also, my host mom keeps being surprised when I know the names of Japanese foods. Today she was shocked that I knew what komatsuna was. Maybe...most American students studying here don't cook Japanese food?

Anyway, after dinner my host brothers and I had homework so we were all sitting at the dining room table doing homework. And then when we were done we (my host brothers and I) played Uno with my host dad. And I learned five thousand new ways to complain about losing! Mwahahaha.

Let's see, what other exciting things have been happening? Not a whole lot, I guess. I gave a presentation in class today about the differences between Western religions and Eastern religions. It went okay-ish, even though certain people's eyes were glazing over. It's three minutes, guys. Really, it's not that hard to pay attention for THREE MINUTES. Oh well. I guess that's what I get for talking about one of the Forbidden Subjects in Polite Conversation.

(I find it kind of amusing that what I find really interesting makes everyone else extraordinarily uncomfortable. Then again, as anyone who has ever taken a discussion class with me knows, I am really good at making people uncomfortable. OH YEAH. Grave of the Fireflies discussion, anyone?)

In any case, I think I'm going to go read about darling foreigners a little bit and then go to bed. It's supposed to rain tomorrow, which'll be nice, 'cause it's suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuper hot and humid right now.

G'night!

*For anyone not in the know, Tokyo Dialect is the standard dialect taught in schools (and in American universities).

**"Because I have a test tomorrow" is a full sentence in Japanese, even though it's not in English. CRAZY.

***Unlike the U.S. where everything closes on Sundays (I would hazard a guess that this is because of Christianity), businesses will close on random days in Japan. It seems like Monday and Tuesday are the most popular days to close for some reason.

****Someone asked me about seasonal vegetables in Japan this time of year an age ago, and now I have your answer. My host mom said that the vegetables that are most often associated with summer (not necessarily the only ones in season, but the iconic ones) are okra, cucumbers, eggplant, tomatoes, and corn. So now you know. Raw okra is delicious, by the way, even though it kind of looks like you're eating drool.

And then she did a strip tease

So today we had our debate in class. It was about an article called 「日本人とアイデンティティ」(Japanese people and identity) written by some famous clinical psychologist who used to teach at Kyoto University and who apparently knows nothing about Western fairy tales 'cause he says that all of them are about male main characters vanquishing beasts and then marrying captured damsels.

Anyway, I was on the side against him, and we would certainly have won...if the teacher hadn't been more worried about giving everyone a chance a speak. Is it my fault that I have a lot to say?

In any case, I started off the debate by saying that Mr. Fancy Pants Psychologist was wrong and knew nothing because the number of fairy tales that follow that pattern are really small, and anyway the most popular fairy tales nowadays are about girls saving themselves or saving men ("Rapunzel," "Beauty and the Beast," "Snow White and Rose Red," etc., etc.) SO THERE. (Except I was about forty times more polite when I was actually saying it.)

Then someone on the pro-Mr. Fancy Pants Psychologist said that maybe that was true but it was less important what the currently popular fairy tales were and more important to look at the versions of fairy tales from the past.

And then someone else on the pro-Mr. Fancy Pants Psychologist side said that anyway there were lots of stories in which girls had to be saved by guys, like "Snow White" and "Little Red Riding Hood."

And I was so waiting for someone to mention Little Red Riding Hood, but I had to wait for FOREVER to say anything because the teacher was giving everyone a chance to speak and kept saying, "Hold on, we need to let other people talk." But THEN after everyone chimed in, I got to counter the argument and said that if, like the pro-Mr. Fancy Pants Side said, traditional versions of stories were more important than current ones, their argument broke down. Because in the traditional version of Little Red Riding Hood, she saves herself.

Pro-Fancy Pants Side girl: No, the hunter saves her.

Me: Nope. In the original version, when Red gets to the house, she finds that the wolf has eaten her grandmother so she...gets naked.

Sensei: You mean she's made to get naked?

Me: No, she takes off her clothes by herself. To...make the wolf...not...notice? Um, confused?

Pro-Fancy Pants Side guy: Like a strip tease? [attempts to pantomime a strip tease]

Me: YES! EXACTLY! (Also, why do you know that word?) Anyway, she does...that word he just said and then says she has to use the bathroom and runs away. SO SHE SAVES HERSELF, SEE?

Pro-Fancy Pants Side guy: But isn't it more important which version is more commonly known now?

Me: That's not what your side said earlier.

Sensei: OKAY, LET'S MOVE ON TO A DIFFERENT TOPIC NOW.

By the end of the debate, everyone was ending all their arguments with, "WE'VE WON." (そうなんじゃないでしょうか。勝った！)

(But, really, my side won. Totally.)

Lessee, what other exciting things happened today?

Actually, not a whole lot.

Hmm, well, what can I talk about then?

It's been pretty hot lately, although it rained this morning, so that helped cool everything down. But now it's gone back to being hot again. UGGGGH, JAPANNNNNNN, WHY CAN'T YOUR WEATHER BE NICERRRRR?

In other news, I was really proud today because someone mentioned 裏切り, and I immediately remembered what it meant! Why? Because it's part of the title of the first theme song for Durarara!! (裏切りの夕焼け). Yeah, okay, so I'm a fangirl. But it helps my Japanese improve, right? (You'd be surprised how many random words I pick up from songs. I learned a surprising amount of vocabulary I use on a relatively frequently basis from Bump of Chicken songs.)

Also, I just finished writing a three-page paper (due tomorrow, and actually it wound up a little bit longer than three pages) entitled 若者における神道の文化 (Youth Shinto Culture). It is approximately as exciting as it sounds, which is to say VERY EXCITING. It's also probably the longest paper I've ever written in Japanese.

And now I am super tired and would like to get to sleep at a somewhat reasonable hour tonight, so I bid you all good night!

P.S. If you're one of the people who has emailed me in the past few days and hasn't gotten a response yet, it's not 'cause I hate you. It's just that I don't have tiiiiiiiiiiiiiime right now. So don't worry. You will get a response. It just might be....very....slow... Sorry, guys!

P.P.S. Opal, from most polite to least polite forms of "but," it's が、けれど、けど. So you had it backwards.

P.P.S. Now I'm listening to 「裏切りの夕焼け」 kind of obsessively. （ああ、朝日は昇る！ビルの谷間！今信じれば変わるのさ、無意味じゃない、あの夢を)

P.P.P.S. (Yes, that is totally the part of the OP where Shizuo shows up. PFFT.)

P.P.P.P.S. Oh, yeah! Aniplex picked up Durarara!! I am super happy.

Boy scout shrine adventure story

Okay, so, first off, my boy scout shrine adventure story.

So yesterday (Sunday) I went with my host mom and my host brothers to the local shrine (Shimogamo) because both my host brothers are boy scouts, and the boy scout troop apparently meets at the shrine every other Sunday. Anyway, my host mom asked me if I wanted to come along, and I said sure, ‘cause I am always up for going to shrines. So we had a nice walk over (and my little host brother taught me the names of a bunch of bugs) and then we got to shrine where the other boy scouts were slowly assembling. Or should I say “boy” scouts. ‘cause about half of them were female. Several of the troop leaders were also female. Anyway, my host mom introduced me to a bunch of the adults who were involved in the group (including an eighty-five-year-old guy who was delighted that I understood Japanese and even more delighted that I was interested in Shinto and proceeded to tell me all about the shrine). Anyway, once everyone was assembled, we all lined up and marched into the actual shrine (we were waiting outside the gate before). And then everyone lined up in front of the area where you're supposed to pray and did the traditional two bows, two claps, one bow. But then they started chanting this thing that I could only understand about 15% of. After that they did the two bows, two claps, one bow again and then marched right out of the shrine...after which all the boy scouts went and got booklets stamped by the local shrine maiden.

This is not the sort of experience I would ever expect to have with a boy scout troop in the US.

Anyway, afterward I asked my host mom to explain it to me:

Me: That thing you were saying in front of the shrine...what did it mean? It was really hard for me to understand.

Host Mom: I don't know.

Me: You...don't know?

HM: Yes.

Me: You mean you don't know what it means?

HM: Yes. Well, it's supposed to be a prayer to the deity of the shrine, but I can't tell you what the words mean. Maybe you should ask the boy scout troop leader. He might know.

Me: Then how did you learn it?

HM: Well, when you say it enough times, you just remember how it's supposed to sound.

Me: Is it the same for every shrine? Or do you have to learn a different one for each one?

HM: I think it's the same. The other shrines I've been to have had the same one.

So then she asked my older host brother if he had the paper with the chant written on it, and sure enough, he did. And no wonder I couldn't understand what it was saying, 'cause it was written in classical Japanese, from back when を was used for things other than marking the object of the sentence! CRAZY. So I could understand about 10% of it, and the rest of it was completely incomprehensible.

So then I asked about the booklet stamping.

Me: At the end, after they were done praying...the shrine maiden stamped the boy scouts books. Is that for a badge?

HM: No. They just do it for fun. It doesn't have any meaning.

AND THIS IS WHY I STUDY SHINTO.

(Actually, there are more complicated reasons why I study Shinto, but they'll have to be saved for tomorrow when I'm actually writing my paper about Shinto.)

Anyway, that was yesterday. Today I had class in the morning and then lunch and then had to give a presentation in the afternoon comparing electronic books and paper books. We were supposed to rehearse beforehand with our other classmates, and I completely bombed the rehearsal. I have no idea what was going on, but I could not form coherent thoughts. Finally I just stopped and told the other members of my group, "I'm sorry, but I can't practice." And they didn't understand that I was saying that I COULDN'T practice and thought that I was just really nervous, and I couldn't think of a better way to explain it (seriously, I cannot practice presentations, even in English; it just doesn't work) so finally they gave up. And when the time came for me to give my presentation, they were all wincing and prepared for me to bomb it, and I didn't, so yay for that. My only comments from the teacher were that I said "um" (or the Japanese equivalent) too much, and that I needed to use the more polite form of "but." And then afterwards one of the girls in my group came up to me and said, "Okay, I get it now. You can only perform without rehearsing, right?" And I said, "YES, THAT WAS THE WORD I WAS LOOKING FOR."

So then I went and bought toothpaste and found out that fluoride has been banned in toothpaste in Japan for 50 years (or so says my residential director), and then I went home and studied like a maniac and had dinner which was delicious and awesome. And now I am writing this blog post, but it's getting really late, so I think I'm going to stop here and go to bed.

Oh, wait, completely random closing note! My little host brother likes Michael Jackson. A LOT. And 'cause he can't exactly sing the songs (since they're in English and he can't figure out the lyrics), he decided to teach himself the dances instead. And it turns out that he's actually a pretty good dancer for an eight year old.

Okay, sleeping time! I have a debate tomorrow afternoon and then I have to write a 3 page paper. HRRRG.

Uno in Japanese is...Uno

I actually finished my homework early today! And even better, my end of semester report topic got approved. I'm writing about the relationship between youth and Shinto. (In case you haven't noticed, I have a little bit too much enthusiasm when it comes to Shinto. But it's fascinating, I swear!) Anyway, I'm taking a short break and then diving straight into Wednesday's homework.

Let's see, what other exciting things have been happening? I played Uno with my little host brother and my host father after dinner. It was basically exactly the same as American Uno, except none of the cards had words on them. (So the skip and reverse cards only had the symbols, as did the wild cards.) Also, I lost. Twice. Well, technically I got in second the first game and lost the second. My host brother was far too pleased, and I was far too pleased, and then somehow I wound up explaining the difference between robbery and burglary. My conversations always seem to veer into the Land of Strange.

Um, what else? Dinner was delicious, as always, although my host mother took pity on my total inability to cut meat with chopsticks and gave me a knife and fork instead.

Oh, I had my first two bits of "culture shock" on Saturday.

The first bit of culture shock came though a conversation with my host mom.

Me: Yeah, we went to Tetsugaku no Michi with our residential director.

Host mom: Oh, the fat woman?

Me: I'm sorry?

I figured that I was mishearing what she was saying, or maybe that there was some other meaning for 太っています that I wasn't aware of.

HM: You know, the big woman?

Me: She has red hair...?

HM: Yes, that's her. You don't think she's fat?

Well, I don't think she's fat at all. Full figured maybe, but definitely not fat. Or particularly large. She's not much bigger than me.

Me: Um, no, I don't think she's fat, but then again, Americans have different body types than Japanese do, right? For example, compared to most Americans, I'm pretty small, but compared to Japanese people, I'm kind of big.

HM: Big? [skeptical look]

Me: I mean, I'm tall. I'm probably taller than most Japanese girls.

HM: But I'm taller than you.

AND THEN MY SOUL WAS CRUSHED FOREVER.

I'm assuming that there's some sort of connotation to 太っています that I'm missing, or just that the word "fat" in English has a much more negative connotation than it does in Japanese. Either that, or anyone who isn't as skinny as a beanpole is automatically "fat." I'm actually leaning toward the last one, because my favorite teacher from last summer said she was fat, and by American standards, she wasn't even chunky. It's interesting to think about how standards vary from place to place.

My second bit of culture shock came when a Japanese girl I was talking to told me that she preferred American men to Japanese men because men from California are "blonde, cool, and outspoken" and Japanese men are "shy, boring, uncool, yellow monkeys." I...well. Yeah. That was an interesting situation. I am not sure that I know any men from California who fit that description. And I definitely don't agree with that stereotype of Japanese men. (And I said so, and then I said that there are some American girls who like shy, quiet Japanese boys and that not all American men are like that--some of them are shy and quiet too--and she started going, "うそ!" (No way!) at me. But then she started asking about cross-cultural dating in the U.S., and why American girls would like Japanese men, so maybe I managed to break down a stereotype a little bit? Maybe?)

Anyway, I'm going to go do some more homework and then call it a night. じゃ、ね！